Embrace Growth
Parks, Recreation & Arts
Part-Time / Seasonal
SUMMER DAY CAMP DIRECTOR
Job Description
The City is not supposed to be accepting applications for the position of Summer Day Camp Director for the 2022 season because we thought we already had someone in the position, but they quit literally two days before training was supposed to begin, so we are desperate.
Experience Level
We do not need to know anything about you except for the fact that you worked as a camp counselor for the City last summer. It doesn’t matter that last year’s camp director was a real adult with a full year of teaching experience. The fact that you are over 18 is good enough for us.
Position Summary
“The camp director position is basically the same as being a camp counselor, except you get paid more!” is what we will tell you when we call you the morning before training starts. You won’t know what to say or what questions to ask because your new boss will call you at 7 a.m. before you are awake (you’re still recovering from the school year) and leave a voicemail saying, “I have a random question for you if you could just call me back really quick when you get this,” as if these aren’t the most anxiety-inducing words someone could leave on a voicemail. As if it wouldn’t be easier to just ask the question there and then, giving you a moment to prepare a response before calling back.
You may feel overwhelmed in the face of this decision. It is okay if you cry while making it. This opportunity could be extremely beneficial in preparing you for your future plans (really, if you want to be a teacher you need all the experience dealing with parents that you can get), but being a camp counselor once again would probably be easier (you wouldn’t even be allowed to deal with the parents). Feel free to consult your resources. Talk to your mom. Call your dad. Text the camp director from the summer before, who may or may not remember your name, and who had to apologize on your behalf when your camper set off an alarm at the library last summer.
When you dash downstairs, thankfully finding your night-owl mother awake, morning coffee in hand, she will probably take one look at your tear-stained face, turn one ear towards the gasps and sobs bursting out of you as you try to explain the situation, and will suggest turning down the camp director position if it is causing you this much stress already. This suggestion will most likely make the crying worse.
Your dad will not be much more help, giving arguments for both sides, most of which you’ve already thought about. Inevitably, he will tell you that, either way you decide to go, they are offering you the position because they saw something in you. “Yes,” you will respond, “they saw that I worked there before.”
The night before the fateful phone call, you will have put on your new favorite t-shirt, an oversized green one that was gifted to you earlier in the year. It has the words “embrace growth” emblazoned across the front. This short phrase will inspire you. It is your season of growth, you will think, and here is an opportunity for it, delivered right to your voicemail. Once you can speak without the nasally congested sound of tears clogging your throat—a minimum two-hour process that involves forcing all snot out of your sinuses—you will call your new boss back to tell her you would be happy to accept the position.
Duties and Responsibilities
- Spend 40-plus hours a week melting into a sweaty puddle on the concrete floor of the pavilion, sunscreen sliding down your skin and stinging your eyes as twenty kids chase you across the playground, calling for your arrest. (The power goes to their heads when the police officers come to talk to them and leave them with police badge stickers. It’s fine. You still like them.)
- Supervise and direct staff ranging from sophomores in high school to professional adults twice your age. Since we are short-staffed on counselors, we will be bringing people in from various departments. Watch out for recent college graduates. You will have to tell one multiple times to put her phone away while you are at the pool. It is your job to watch the counselors, and theirs to watch the campers. Don’t forget, Apple Watches count as phones here too!
- Address staff when they all decide to float in the lazy river instead of watching the campers in the pool. It is blisteringly hot and nothing sounds better than floating through the cool water, but everyone here has a job to do. One day they will come up and inform you that they plan to do this while the campers are going through a swimming ability test. They aren’t asking, but you will still say no. Someone has to watch the pools as they finish their tests. Be firm, but bite back the building bitterness. It’s not their fault you can’t get in the pool too.
- Overcome your fear of making phone calls. Campers will regularly forget every and any essential thing you can think of: their lunchbox, swimsuit, water bottle, tennis shoes. One kid will pack his lunch box but all it will contain is a Ziploc bag with two Oreos (They let the six-year-old pack his own lunch and didn’t see something like this coming). You must call the parents when this happens. They will not have your phone number saved because you are being hired as the camp director too late for it to be on any of the informational documents sent to them. Become really good at leaving voicemails.
- Stay calm when dealing with rainbow-colored puke. Put aside your own cup of sticky, sugary sweetness masquerading as a snow cone (You won’t want to finish it anyway). You will try to remember the things they never taught you in training, questioning whether Pringles will help or hurt a kid with nothing but sugar in his stomach. He’s not actually sick, just nauseated. Give him a barf bag and hope for the best.
- Hide all signs of panic. When the paramedics are called because a camper may have gotten a concussion at the pool, do not ask your boss for advice when filling out the incident report form. She has enough going on dealing with the parents and paramedics. If you hide the stress well enough and just commit to filling out the form, she will remark at the end of the summer how cool you are under pressure. Do not tell her you were freaking out at the time. Just appreciate you made it through the moment.
- Realize you are basically in charge of the camp when your boss calls YOU to ask if the camp materials—crafts, games, and sports items that were brought to the camp’s indoor space in the mall due to the excessive heat—should still be brought back to the outdoor camp area even though it is raining. Double-check the radar and make a decision like the true adult you are.
- Love every second you get to spend with the kids. Summer may feel like it lasts forever, but you will only get to spend so much time helping the campers with crafts, destroying them at card games, and questioning how they got stuck in yet another piece of playground equipment. Maybe they won’t be back next summer, or maybe you won’t. Enjoy the time you have with them now.
Work Environment & Physical Abilities
- Must be able to withstand high heat and humidity levels. Temperatures will be well into the 90s or 100s for the majority of the summer. You will become well acquainted with the relief of having a full bucket of water dumped on your head as part of a game, or the blast of the sprinkler straight to your face as a child chases you with the portable piece of yellow plastic. The five-year-olds’ favorite activity will become getting absolutely soaked, and then hugging you. It’s funnier for them when you act like this is the end of the world, even if you find it entertaining. As the summer wanes on, you will begin to experience a sense of dehydration that water alone cannot quench. Come prepared by carrying two water bottles at all times, one of which must contain some form of Gatorade or other electrolyte-replenishing drink.
- A fear of thunderstorms may be detrimental in this position. While camp will be moved to an indoor location during severe storms, you will likely be required to set up camp while thunder rumbles boldly through the wind if it appears that the inclement weather will pass by the time campers start arriving. Do not look up whether lightning can travel through concrete—you will not like the answer.
- Must be able to spend most of the day on your feet, standing, walking, chasing after children, picking up trash and game items the campers have left on the ground, and lifting and carrying heavy objects. Carrying campers is not technically permitted, but they will still be the heaviest things you end up carrying when they decide you should catch them after climbing on things they aren’t supposed to, or when they’re falling way behind the rest of the group. This is, of course, outside of the pick-up/drop-off sign, which will make you realize just how out of shape you truly are, and the black box filled with confidential paperwork and medical supplies that you will quickly give up on carrying everywhere like you were told to.
Compensation
This is a seasonal position paying an hourly rate of not nearly enough money for all of the work you have to do. Your friend, who is really into getting people to ask for raises this summer, will tell you to ask for one. Please recognize you cannot do this. First of all, you just got a promotion, so technically you already got a raise. Secondly, you’re working for the city. They have a budget for this summer camp, and giving you a raise is not in it.
Application
We recognize that this can be a demanding job, but we expect you will find it to be a worthwhile position. You will be able to interact with all of the kids every week, and you will come home each day with another semi-unbelievable story. Eight weeks may seem like a long time, but, as they say, time flies when you’re trying to wrangle hordes of children. This summer may leave you sunburned and so exhausted you can’t even think about making plans with friends after work, but if you give it a chance, it can also leave you empowered and satisfied. Despite not submitting an application for this position, we still look forward to seeing the effects of your decision to embrace growth this summer.
Alyssa Shellabarger is a student at Truman State University in Kirksville, MO, pursuing degrees in Secondary English Education and English with the goal of one day becoming a high school English teacher. This is her first publication.
The Albion Review 